Bumblebee

The sixth Transformers film morphs into a hybrid of King Kong and Disney’s The Love Bug.

Genre mash-up: Hailee Steinfeld and big hero B-127

The neat
thing about the Transformers is that they can modify themselves into virtually
anything they want. Likewise, the franchise, inspired by the Hasbro toy, would
appear to be a mutable thing, grabbing at any genre that might fuel its
longevity. The new film, actually a prequel to the first (2007), goes back to
basics in which a teenager discovers that their first car is something else
entirely. In spite of the cacophonous violence on display here, Bumblebee is actually aiming for a
younger demographic, blending elements of E.T.
The ExtraTerrestrial with Short
Circuit. Note, Steven Spielberg gets an executive producer credit.

Hailee
Steinfeld, who was nominated for an Oscar (at the age of 13) for playing the
tomboy Mattie Ross in True Grit
(2010), here plays the tomboy Charlie Watson. A former high diver who has
swapped the swimming pool for a toolbox since the death of her father, Charlie
is an ace with a spanner and screwdriver and dreams of owning her own car. In
1987, on her eighteenth birthday, a local junkyard owner (Len Cariou) gifts her
a beat-up yellow VW beetle, not really believing that she can get it started. But
she does, drives it home, and parks it in her stepfather’s surprisingly spacious
garage. And after a bit of tinkering, Charlie inadvertently re-activates the
autobot B-127. As it happens, the bot is an escapee from the planet Cybertron,
and has been sent to Earth to set up a new home-from-home. He is also a refugee
with vital information about the whereabouts of his leader, Optimus Prime, and
the abominable Decepticons are on his tail.

Bumblebee is really two movies, a reboot
of Disney’s The Love Bug and an
intergalactic sci-fi epic. The first half is the more jolly and Steinfeld a
winsome presence as her character navigates the pitfalls of family life and an
irritating younger brother (Jason Drucker). So when she bonds with B-127, whom
she nicknames ‘Bumblebee,’ her life gains a new purpose. These early scenes prove
suitably engaging and recall the more magical moments of Brad Bird’s The Iron Giant and its ilk, before all
hell lets loose. Then, as government mercenaries and the Decepticons enter the
fray, the film mutates into King Kong
and the volume is notched up several decibels. The CGI is predictably awesome,
and it is astonishing how much emotion Bumblebee can convey with just a few
movements (his power of speech has been destroyed). But the mix of the cute and
the sense of global annihilation should make some parents wary.